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The Company

The Company was the largest separate entity within a regiment, and the ten companies of the 19th averaged about eighty-three men each. The men came from three counties in north-central Virginia.

Albemarle County

Company A - The Monticello Guard

Company B - The Albemarle Rifles

Company C - The Scottsville Guard

Company D - The Howardsville Grays

Company E - The Piedmont Guards

Company F - The Montgomery Guard

Company K - The Blue Ridge Rifles

Nelson County

Company G - The Nelson Grays

Amherst County

Company H - Southern Rights Guard

Company I - The Amherst Rifles

Near the geographical center of the commonwealth of Virginia in 1861 were the counties of Albemarle, Nelson, and Amherst. The counties composed a region of rich farmlands that produced major cash crops of wheat, corn, oats, and tobacco. Prior to the War, the inhabitant's only daily concerns were with their crops and family. Before these men became soldiers of the 19th Virginia Regiment, most of them seldom traveled outside of their counties and only knew of other places as names in newspapers. But to the north lay Harpers Ferry, A Federal Arsenal, and Washington D.C., the seat of the Federal Government. To the east were Petersburg and Richmond, the state Capitol; these two cities were among the most industrialized in the South. Lynchburg and Danville lay to the south and the Blue Ridge Mountains were to the west. Soon young men would fight and die for the possession of these areas and over the mountains would come the whispers of war, for as the echoes from the guns at Fort Sumter subsided came the war and with it a new patriotism, one for which men from the three counties would leave their homes to fight. The great Cause, the great desire, was Southern Independence.

On April 17, 1861 four Companies departed Charlottesville, Virginia, eventually marching to Winchester. Here the 19th Regiment of Virginia Volunteers, though not yet an official

organization, began its Confederate service. These men would fight in every

major battle in the eastern theatre until they were surrendered at

Appomattox Court House four years later. The 19th Virginia Regiment

suffered approximately 624 casualties out of 1,218 during the course of

the war.